Two days ago, a friend took my machine to the shop. I felt as I would if waiting to hear about a loved one in the hospital. I thought about sending flowers. Today, I called, and got the news.
The power surge fried the motherboard. I will have to get a new one. If the motherboard goes, then the machine does not power up. I told him to go ahead and put in a new power supply anyway, since as he said: we don’t want a bad power supply frying a brand new motherboard.
I will basically get a new computer. I got it seven or eight years ago, and it had a Pentium/III with 512mb of RAM. For around $300, I will get a new motherboard with a dual-core Pentium/IV, 2 gigs of RAM, and a second hard drive for my fantabulous Linux idea. This gives my old machine a new heart and brain.
I plan to install Slackware on the second 160mb drive in a dual-boot configuration, and this time install the X and Gnome applications, then install Orca to enable speech. I will then investigate the Linux GUI, something I have steered clear of because of my frustration at the Windows GUI. “A prisoner who escapes through the roof will think twice before entering again through the door.” to quote Gandalf, but hopefully I will have better experience. I would then like to run WINE, and try to run Windows applications, mainly sound editing and games for the blind. If it won’t work, no worries, I can boot back into the Windows half and agonize.
I feel pretty good, but Bec reminded me to call them back, and let them know that I do audio work, and need a quiet power supply. Hopefully they will give me a good one anyway, but never assume anything! I hope I have a good experience with these guys. Good hardware people have become hard to find.
